Banded Pipefish Baby

This enchanting little pipefish is just a couple of centimetres long. Usually hidden deep within coral heads, it was a treat to see one out in the open with its awkward animatronic movements on full display.
Pipefishes are close relatives of seahorses and have the same long snout and armoured bodies. They also leave most of the parenting duties to the males and exhibit some of the same pair-bonding behaviour that seahorses are famous for.
The taxonomy of Caribbean pipefish is tricky and not perfectly defined, but we think this is a juvenile Banded Pipefish (Halicampus / Micrognathus crinitus).